Hungary would like to help extracting oil in Ecuador
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Hungary and Ecuador are signing a defence and a hydrocarbon industry cooperation agreement with the aim of preventing security risks and guaranteeing energy supply, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Quito on Thursday. The reopening of the Hungarian embassy in Ecuador in 2015 was a good decision, which was also demonstrated by the 74 percent increase in bilateral trade last year, Péter Szijjártó said in Quito on Thursday.
Defence cooperation
The world is facing severe security and energy supply crises, and the countries that build the broadest partnerships possible will be the ones to best cope with them, the foreign ministry cited Szijjártó as saying. “The more countries we cooperate with, the easier it will be to overcome the security and energy supply crisis,” Szijjártó said. The defence cooperation agreement focuses on crisis management operations, the minister said. He said there were around 1,000 Hungarian troops serving in peacekeeping and anti-terror missions worldwide, many of whom were serving together with Ecuadorian forces.
“Obviously our geographical focus is the Western Balkans, but we also have a presence in the Middle East, Africa and southern Europe,” he said. The aim of these operations is to prevent new armed conflicts and keep a lid on migration, the minister said, arguing that security risks were among the main causes of illegal immigration. Meanwhile, the hydrocarbon industry cooperation agreement will give Hungary another option regarding maritime oil imports in case crude deliveries to Hungary via Ukraine are rendered impossible, Szijjarto said.
Because energy supply problems are a global issue, geographical distances matter less and all global energy sources need to be taken into consideration, Szijjártó said. He noted that Ecuador was one of the biggest oil producers in Latin America, adding that its production rate of 140,000 barrels a day allowed it to contribute to diversification processes in distant parts of the world.
Here are some photos from Quito, Ecuador’s capital:
Hungary helps in oil extraction
Hungary’s energy supply is secure, but it must be prepared for a scenario in which oil transits through Ukraine are rendered impossible, the minister said. “This would leave maritime deliveries as the only option, in which case we must consider one of the biggest Latin American sources of crude,” he said. Another aspect of the agreement, he said, concerned the use of Hungarian technology in boosting the efficiency of oil extraction.
